To the editors:
Bryan Miller’s Neighborhood News on Unity Temple (October 13) is full of misstatements of fact which could easily have been avoided by consulting actual documents instead of relying on oral reports by those trying to stampede the congregation of the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Oak Park into accepting the demands of the Board of the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation (UTRF).
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
UTRF was not organized by a group of architects, etc., as stated in the story. UTRF was organized by members of the congregation. It grew out of the church’s Restoration Committee which had already raised, and spent, many thousands of dollars on restoration of the building. When originally chartered UTRF’s 7-member Board included 3 members appointed by the congregation (43%). Over time UTRF expanded the size of its Board without increasing the number of church appointees. By 1986 its 22-member Board still had 3 members appointed by the church Board (14%). That year 2 additional members were added: one appointed by the church, one not, giving the church a 17% vote on its 24-member Board. With this tiny minority answerable to the church, UTRF is effectively no longer accountable to the owners of the building (the congregation). I know of no institution that permits an outside group to conduct capital campaigns and control how funds are spent on restoration or improvement, without accountability to the parent institution. Usually this is achieved by maintaining majority voting membership on the governing board of the capital campaign under control of the parent institution. In our case such a majority interest does not exist and other arrangements to assure accountability to the church are required.
Your story says the church Board has tried to assert 100% control of tour revenues. In fact a joint team of church and UTRF representatives were working to develop a long-term formal agreement for administration of tour revenue when the UTRF Board, on June 26, 1989, passed a motion that UTRF would not negotiate further unless the church Board first entered into a long-term agreement granting sole control of tour revenue to UTRF. In effect UTRF demanded as a precondition of negotiation that the church cede the major point being negotiated. There was only one further negotiating session, at which UTRF representatives communicated this demand to church representatives. Another session was scheduled for July 9 but was cancelled by UTRF because the church Board had not accepted UTRF’s precondition.
I do not want UTRF to dissolve. I hope an administrative process can be developed by which we, the church, can carry out our responsibility, to ourselves and to the wider community, to assure that Unity Temple is preserved. I hope UTRF can be involved in the process.
I did originally mention the easement to LPCI, which is an extremely positive step for the church to have taken; unfortunately, that part of my overlong article was cut.
